21c Museum Hotels Appoints Sarah Robbins as Chief Operating Officer

Louisville, KY (August 29, 2018) 21c Museum Hotels is pleased to announce the appointment of Sarah Robbins to the position of Chief Operating Officer. A founding partner of 21c Museum Hotels, Robbins has been with 21c Museum Hotels since 2005 having previously served as Chief Hospitality Officer. In her new role, she will be responsible for overseeing all hotel operations, in addition to food and beverage operations and human resources.

“Sarah has been a key member of our team since before we opened 21c and Proof on Main in 2006,” said 21c Museum Hotels President and CEO, Craig Greenberg. “For over a decade, Sarah has provided strong leadership and generated successful results. She is a natural leader with a genuine desire to extend gracious hospitality to her teammates and our guests. I’m very excited about Sarah’s enhanced leadership position with 21c, and I know she will excel at creating opportunities and solving challenges for our company, guests and teammates.”

An energetic advocate for 21c’s culture of ‘yes’, Sarah leads the company’s efforts in building and developing an inclusive team, environment and philosophy. Inspired by the boundary-breaking nature of the museum’s contemporary art collection, Robbins challenged her own thinking about the notion of team building and corporate culture by encouraging and empowering the 21c team to say ‘yes’ first to each other, and then to guests. This simple tenet transformed both the team mindset and the guest experience, leading to employee loyalty and high guest satisfaction scores.

Robbins, along with the 21c Museum Hotels team, will oversee the hotel and restaurant development process from design to operations – while ensuring a seamless relationship between each hotel and its restaurant. Under her leadership, the company’s restaurants have earned numerous accolades, as 21c’s chefs are among the best in the country. Chef Matthew McClure from The Hive at 21c Bentonville is a five-time James Beard Foundation Semifinalist for “Best Chef: South.” Proof on Main at 21c Louisville was named to Tasting Table’s list of the “Best Hotel Bars in America” and The Hive was listed on Eater’s list of “The South’s 38 Essential Restaurants” in 2017. She is an active member of the Southern Foodways Alliance, a James Beard Foundation Women in Culinary Leadership mentor and serves on the board of the Louisville Convention and Visitors Bureau. In 2015, she was a featured speaker at The Welcome Conference, and at the 2017 and 2018 FAB Workshop – a series of educational and inspirational workshops created by women, for women in the hospitality industry. Sarah will support Women in Hospitality United this September by taking part in the Solution Sprint project, where stakeholders from across the food space will convene and form teams to tackle some of the most challenging issues facing the hospitality industry today.

Robbins began her career working for Myriad Restaurant Group at the famed Tribeca Grill in New York City, where she served in a variety of management positions. Robbins eventually left New York to return to her hometown of Louisville, Kentucky while staying on with Myriad. She continued her role as a project director and lead trainer for opening teams consulting with Noble Hospitality, Starwood Hotels & Resorts, Destination Hotels and Interstate Hotels & Resorts, amongst others. Robbins was a part of the team that opened Proof on Main, ultimately accepting a permanent role with 21c in 2006. Sarah Robbins is a Captain (Ret.) in the Army Reserves and a graduate of Cornell University’s School of Hotel Administration. She lives in Louisville, Kentucky with her husband and two sons.

About 21c Museum Hotels

21c Museum Hotels, an award-winning hospitality company based in Louisville, Kentucky, is pushing the boundaries of both the museum and hotel worlds to create a new kind of travel experience. The company was founded as a single property by contemporary art collectors and preservationists Laura Lee Brown and Steve Wilson, whose mission was to share innovative contemporary art with the public and participate in the revitalization of downtown Louisville. The couple opened the first 21c in 2006 along downtown’s West Main Street, rehabilitating a series of 19th century warehouses to create a union of genuine hospitality, thoughtful design and culinary creativity — all anchored by a contemporary art museum. Today, 21c operates eight museum hotels in Louisville, Kentucky; Cincinnati, Ohio; Bentonville, Arkansas; Durham, North Carolina; Lexington, Kentucky; Nashville, Tennessee, Oklahoma City and Kansas City, 21c projects are also under development in Chicago, Illinois; Miami, Florida; and Des Moines, Iowa. The company is equally focused on creating unique, chef-driven restaurants that are as much a part of the community as each hotel. The 21c restaurant portfolio includes; Proof on Main, Metropole, The Hive, Counting House, Lockbox, Mary Eddy’s Kitchen x Lounge, Gray and Dudley, The Savoy, and Garage Bar.

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